Sprayers are well known devices for applying a liquid spray solution of some type to a ground or turf surface. Such sprayers are typically carried on or propelled by a vehicle to allow the sprayer to be driven over a large area of the surface in a relatively short time. In order to further enhance productivity, such sprayers typically have a plurality of side-by-side, laterally extending spray booms that cover a spray swath that is larger than the width of the wheelbase of the sprayer. The outboard wing booms of such a sprayer can usually be folded inwardly to reduce the width of the sprayer for transport when the sprayer is being transported from place to place and is not being used for spraying. U.S. Pat. No. 7,364,096 to Sosnowski et al, which is owned by The Toro Company, the assignee of this invention, discloses a sprayer of this type having a fixed center boom and a pair of wing booms that can be folded into an X-shaped configuration above the center boom for transport.
Sprayers of the type under consideration here include a relatively large tank for holding a supply of the spray solution that is to be applied to the ground or turf surface. The spray solution comprises a relatively small amount of a chemical that is mixed with and suspended in solution in a relatively large amount of water in a desired ratio. One problem is ensuring that the chemical in the spray solution remains in solution with the water as it is stored in the tank prior to being sprayed. An improved tank agitation system for attempting to solve this problem is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,640,972 to Otto et al., which is also owned by The Toro Company, the assignee of this invention. While this tank agitation system is more effective than predecessor systems, its effectiveness is limited by the amount of flow per unit of time that is available for the tank agitation system. Accordingly, a way to boost the flow through the agitation system when flow is otherwise available for this purpose would be a desirable advance in the art.
Vehicle mounted sprayers with a plurality of spray booms as disclosed in Sosnowski or Otto can be quite heavy due to weight of the spray solution carried thereon, particularly when the spray solution tank is mostly full. It is not uncommon for such a sprayer to be used on hilly terrain such as the hills or undulations often found on modern golf courses. It is also not uncommon for the operator of the sprayer for one reason or another to have to bring the sprayer to a halt while ascending a hill. However, many sprayers of this type use a manually shifted transmission to power the drive wheels of the vehicle. With such a drive system and with the sprayer stopped on a hill, it can be difficult for the operator to smoothly place the sprayer back into forward motion without the vehicle rolling back down the hill somewhat and/or without the vehicle jerking forwardly as the operator moves his or her foot from the brake pedal to the accelerator pedal and attempts to quickly depress the accelerator pedal. It would be a further advantage to provide a sprayer with a hill assist system for allowing the operator to smoothly continue the ascent up a hill from a stopped condition without having the vehicle jerk or roll back down the hill.
In operating a sprayer having multiple spray booms as shown in Sosnowski, separate on/off switches are provided for stopping and starting the spray flow through the fixed center boom and the pivotal wing booms. In addition, lift and lower switches are provided for controlling the actuators that lift the wing booms into their transport positions or lower the wing booms into their spray positions. The Applicants herein have discovered that these boom control switches are the ones most frequently used by the operator during a spraying operation. For example, the operator might have to shut off the spray from all the booms at the end of each pass across a turf surface to avoid applying the spray solution to areas on which the spray solution should not be applied. Or, the operator might have to raise and shut off the spray from one of the wing booms if the sprayer is operating along the margin of the turf surface.
However, in many sprayers, the boom switches, both the on/off and lift and lower switches, can be difficult for the operator to quickly find without having the look down and locate the switches on the control panel provided for such switches. Anytime the operator has to look down to locate controls is problematic as it prevents the operator from keeping his or her full attention on the task of driving the vehicle. This is particularly a problem when the task of locating certain controls to operate such controls arises frequently during the operation of the sprayer, as the Applicants have noted is the case with the boom controls. Thus, a need is present in the sprayer art for some way of assisting the operator in locating and operating the boom controls without needing to look for them.
Finally, on the topic of operator convenience, vehicle mounted sprayers are often equipped with a hose reel for carrying a garden type spray hose for manual spraying by the operator. This is done by the operator stopping the vehicle, dismounting the vehicle, unwinding a length of hose from the hose reel, pointing the hose at an area that is to be manually sprayed, and then engaging a pump and/or valve for causing the spray solution to pass from the tank and through the hose to exit from a nozzle on the end of the hose. However, in known sprayers, the hose reel is mounted on the vehicle in a single position in which the hose reel generally lies flat against one side of the vehicle. The direction in which the hose can be easily wound and unwound from the hose reel, i.e. a longitudinal fore-and-aft direction parallel to the side of the vehicle, often does not comport with where the operator wishes the spray from the hose to be directed. Thus, after a suitable length of hose has been unwound from the hose reel, the operator must often wrestle or drag the hose along the ground to properly orient the hose towards the area or patch of ground that is to be sprayed. This can be difficult and cumbersome to do.